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Re: Hygienic Study from Canada.

It would be very interesting if the Canadian and USA researchers would work together and extend their research into the genetic level.
I noticed that the data did not reference the source of breeder queens.
We will find out that the desired trait or traits are going to be in the area of Quantitive genetics and not a simple single gene facor.
Thanks for posting.

Re: Hygienic Study from Canada.

I agree, with cautions about focussing too hard on singular resistance mechanisms. I'd buy a tester or pay for assays - as long as they were cost effective (and non-destructive).

But I think the established assay methods they used to determine which colonies were variously hygienic are simple stuff any beekeeper can use for selection purposes, so the market for instruments may be limited.

The fact of hygienic behaviours and their heritability are well established prior to this trial - lets not give them credit for that. I'm not sure either that they are the first to establish relationships between these and specific loci. But is all useful stuff.

Mike

The race isn't always to the swift, nor the fight to the strong, but that's the way to bet

Re: Hygienic Study from Canada.

They have test sticks in 3rd world countries that test for four or five diseases in a single stick. Testing for multiple proteins would be awsome for identifying which queens to breed to which drone combinations... And for identifying if you are getting what you pay for in a queen. Nice study thanks for sharing!

Re: Hygienic Study from Canada.

Originally Posted by danmcm

They have test sticks in 3rd world countries that test for four or five diseases in a single stick. Testing for multiple proteins would be awsome for identifying which queens to breed to which drone combinations... And for identifying if you are getting what you pay for in a queen. Nice study thanks for sharing!

How would sticks - or anything else work for a protein in a non-destructive way? Would you have to destroy the queen?

Mike

The race isn't always to the swift, nor the fight to the strong, but that's the way to bet

Re: Hygienic Study from Canada.

any quick strip (immuno assay strip) would be destructive some how. You wouldn't test the queen but you could test her progeny, young larvae, worker, drone etc... But you'd need to grind something up in a buffer to extract the proteins you're looking for.

Re: Hygienic Study from Canada.

I thought the observation about the honeybee increasing a hemolymph ("bee blood" per my understanding) protein to increase coagulation as a mechanism of reducing the feeding efficiency of the Varroa mite was pretty interesting. This might explain the VSH bees ability to reduce the fertility of the mite.

Re: Hygienic Study from Canada.

Originally Posted by TooFarGone

I thought the observation about the honeybee increasing a hemolymph ("bee blood" per my understanding) protein to increase coagulation as a mechanism of reducing the feeding efficiency of the Varroa mite was pretty interesting. This might explain the VSH bees ability to reduce the fertility of the mite.

Interesting. I've thought that the mechanism would be the ability to detect and uncap large families but not small ones. That would very neatly 'breed' less fecund mites. But that's just my own theory. And of course there's no reason why there shouldn't be several - or more - separate mechanisms accounting for reduced fertility. I wondered about herbal fixes.